Beer Advertisements: Is the glass half full for everyone?

Beer advertisements are one of the main offenders when it comes to using sexist stereotypes. Women are constantly portrayed as either sexual objects or nagging housewives in an attempt to attract the male audience. The phrase “sex sells” comes into play here. Women are regularly sexualised to entice male customers into buying a specific brand of beer. They will most often have high amounts of skin showing in places such as the breasts, buttocks, arms and legs. If that does not work advertisers then try to entice husbands or boyfriends by playing on the irritating wife or girlfriend stereotype. It is often repeat offenders when it comes to this type of advertising. Brands such as Skol, Heineken and Budweiser are the main beer producers that have consistently sexist advertisements. This type of advertisement appeals to the target audience by degrading women with cliché stereotypes. Most of the beer advertisements today have very little to do with the product that is being advertised because they very heavily feature half-naked women. In an article on everydayfeminism.com an article about advertising affecting rape culture it is stated that “The sexualisation of women sends a clear message – it is a man’s role to gaze at women and it is a woman’s role to be a sexual object.”

Example 1

The first example of the degrading of women in beer advertisements is shown in these two Budweiser posters. In both examples, the women are shown to be a part of the beer bottle therefore objectifying them in a distasteful way. The reason that advertisers choose to portray women as objects is because they have sex appeal which makes the product look more desirable. Many other beer companies such as Heineken, Michelob and Beers of Mozambique have used this advertising technique in their commercials as well. These types of advertisements allow men to believe that buying beer will make them appealing to women such as the ones in the commercials which is, of course, not the case.

Example 2

Translations:

Fountain- If the guy who invented the drinking fountain drank Skol; it would not be like this but like this. Everything’s round with Skol.

Breasts- If the guy who invented the censor strip drank Skol; it would not be like this but like this. Everything’s round with Skol.

Bra- If the guy who invented the bra drank Skol; it would not be like this but like this. Everything’s round with Skol.
Shower Curtain- If the guy who invented the shower curtain drank Skol; it would not be like this but like this. Everything’s round with Skol.

 

In these Skol advertisements women are clearly objectified to be desirable for men by using their bodies as the focal point to these posters. Each poster shows an invention that could have been improved to convenience men better if only the man who invented them had been drinking Skol. This could be accurate if the person who invented the bra had been a man. It was, however, a lady named Mary Phelps Jacob. The slogan “Everything’s round with Skol” refers to a woman’s body parts such as her breasts and buttocks. Again, the advertisers have played on men’s attraction to the female body by using it to sell their brand of beer. Most of the advertisements above only show the parts of women that the target audience will be attracted to. This is an example of a beer advertisement that has little relevance to the product being sold. The beer only features in the bottom right corner of every ad while the rest of the space is filled with women’s bodies.

Example 3

In these advertisements by Guinness and Schneider the product is shaped to resemble parts of a woman’s body.  This is a similar advertising technique as the first example where woman were dressed as the beer. These images attract the audience’s eyes by causing the beer to bear a resemblance to taboo body parts in Western culture. If there was actually a naked women on either of these posters they would be banned from the public’s viewing, however because of their somewhat clever disguise the posters are viable. The man grabbing for the “breast” in the first Schneider poster is a crude example of how women are objects for the satisfaction of men. The encouragement of such vulgar behaviour can have an impression on the rape culture of society. Images such as the examples on this blog can make it seem okay for a man to grab a woman like this without her consent. Especially as in these advertisements the women are dehumanised by only showing parts of their bodies, reinforcing the idea that they do not have feelings and men can take advantage of that for their own pleasure.

Example 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMCtpOwBdlY&noredirect=1

In this commercial for Bavaria Brasil beer one of the two men sitting on the beach picks up a beer bottle out of the chilly bin. As he does this a typically beautiful Brazilian women in a bikini rises up out the water. It does not take the man long to figure out that the beer bottle controls what the women does. He begins to take advantage of the women by causing her to make movements such as spin and lie down in the sand. His friend soon realises what is going on and attempts to snatch the bottle from his friend so as to have control over the mysterious women. They then begin to unpeel the label off of the bottle and the woman begins to undo her bikini bottoms. This commercial is not only encouraging men to objectify women and control them but for women to allow themselves to be objectified and controlled. The woman in this advertisement does not look at all unimpressed that these men are forcing her to do what they want her to, in fact she smiles for the entire time. A common recurrence throughout these advertisements is the difference in beauty between the genders. Much like in this commercial, the women are always very beautiful and the men are generally quite ordinary looking in comparison. This is most likely because the key demographic for beer sales is heterosexual men. The companies want their consumers to believe that if they drink their brand of beer then they can get beautiful women such as the ones featured in the ads no matter what they look like. Although most men would be smart enough to see through this over-exaggeration seeing this can still trigger a subconscious thought process within them. They will not believe that this will actually be true but they will remember the commercial because of the attraction to the female actresses or models. The female in beer advertisements is used to fulfil the male fantasy by overly sexualising everything that she does and being exposed much more than any woman in reality would.

Example 5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbsUAqC3nWo

In this commercial for Tui beer three men are attempting to break into the Tui beer factory which is entirely run by females. Of course being a beer ad targeted at men these females must be dressed in less clothing than would be suitable for work in real life. For example, a security guard would normally wear long pants and a button-up t-shirt; however in this advertisement the security guards are wearing short skirts and tops that expose a great deal of cleavage and midriff. The women in this commercial are portrayed as rather naïve and stupid as the men easily sneak past them with ease by distracting the security guards with high heels and obvious camouflage against a brick wall. The males are fully clothed in this commercial and the women are skimpily dressed which is another recurring similarity with beer advertisements. This is another ploy used by companies to entice male consumers into buying their products. The demographic for beer advertisements is white, heterosexual males. Since the demographic is heterosexual males they would be more attracted to half-naked women rather than half-naked men. This is why the men in beer advertisements are almost always fully-clothed. The females in this Tui commercial are also portrayed as being spoilsports. They are the reason that the men have to sneak into the factory and are the antagonists of the advertisement. This is a common stereotype used in commercials though women who are portrayed like this are usually not good-looking or are the partner of the male. In this advertisement the spoilsports are also good-looking making them a combination of the two stereotypes.

Example 6

In these advertisements for Cooper’s 2.9% alcohol beer the concept of “beer goggles” is played on by showing women “realistically.” The scenario behind these ads is most likely that the man is hoping to have sexual relations with the woman in each advertisement, however because he is not as intoxicated he can still see how she really looks. It shows the parts of the women that are disguised by the beer and would make a man attracted to her such as larges breasts, long legs and a pretty face. The selling point is that because there is less alcohol, the “bad” aspects such as old age, extra weight and general look of the women will still be visible. This potentially saves the man from having sexual relations with her and regretting it later. This gives the idea that a woman can be judged by her looks, not her personality. It also implies that a woman is not worth pursuing because she is deemed “ugly” by the creators of this advertisement. The message that women would receive from these advertisements is that you should not look like any of these women if they ever want to find a husband. Of course this is not the case but with advertisers constantly reinforcing this, the self-esteem of women would decrease greatly.